Defense sparks Elkins past B-U

Lady Tigers garner 15 steals, 9 blocks to turn back rival

November 29, 2012

TENNERTON - The Elkins High School girls opened the season with an exciting road victory Wednesday night, recording a 34-27 victory at Big 10 Conference rival Buckhannon-Upshur.

The Lady Tigers ended the game with a 10-3 run, turning a 24-24 tie into a hard-fought victory.

Coach Nancy Lewis' squad won the game with an aggressive night on the defensive end. Elkins produced 15 steals, blocked nine shots and forced 28 Lady Buc turnovers. The Lady Tigers held B-U to 23.9 percent from the field (11-of-46).

Article Photos

The Inter-Mountain photo by Andrew FergusonBuckhannon-Upshur’s Jessica Feronti drives the lane as Elkins defenders Brianna Swecker (3) and Hailey Collins (11) converge Wednesday night in Big 10 Conference play in Tennerton. The Lady Tigers opened the season with a 34-27 victory.

"We were not getting a lot of production on the offensive end, so this victory was definitely from our defensive effort," Lewis said. "We kept the pressure up, and did a nice job of filling the passing lanes and not quitting on plays. That got us a lot of steals and enabled us to block a lot of shots."

Elkins led 5-4 after one quarter, but B-U rallied to take a 17-15 lead to the locker room. B-U's Kelsey Hinzman led that charge, scoring eight of her game-high 13 points in the frame. Elkins cut the margin to 21-20 by the end of the third quarter, setting the stage for the late-game heroics.

Baskets from Logan Dudley and Michaela Lewis-Lambert put Elkins up 24-21, but a three-pointer from B-U's Karli Littler tied the game at 24-24 with 6:28 remaining.

From there, the Elkins defense bottled up the Lady Buc effort, closing with the 10-3 surge. Jaycie Saseen scored five points during the decisive run as she ended the night as the team's leading scorer with seven points. Kelsi Triplett followed with six points.

Lewis-Lambert and Dudley led the rebounding effort, with 10 and eight boards, respectively. They accounted for 18 of the team's 37 rebounds.

"Those two are going to be counted for a lot of rebounding this season," Lewis said.

Ashley Simmons added six rebounds, while Colleen Webley matched the three steals that were provided by Lewis-Lambert and Dudley. Three different Tigers had two assists and three more had two blocked shots.